Israel’s Offensive in Gaza: Over 1,000 Palestinians Killed and 5,000 Wounded as Attacks Continue

As Israel mobilizes to invade Gaza, the bombs rain down on the civilian population.

A powerful explosion in the northwestern part of Gaza was captured from space by a Maxar satellite on Tuesday. It is unknown which target Israel attacked in this area, which mostly consists of scattered residential buildings. Photo: Satellite Image: ©2023 Maxar Technologies.

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Published: 12/10/2023 10:07

The short version

Israel has attacked over 450 targets in Gaza. Over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed and 5,000 wounded since Hamas attacked Israel on Saturday. Israel has blocked electricity, water and supplies to Gaza.

The summary is created with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and quality assured by Aftenposten’s journalists.

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– Hamas wants change, and they will get that. What was in Gaza will not be there in the future.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stood near the border fence that isolates Gaza from Israel on Tuesday. He spoke to his soldiers.

– We have started the offensive in the air. Later it will also come on the ground, he continued.

On the night of Wednesday, according to reports from the government, Israel attacked 450 targets in Gaza. Palestinian authorities claim that 30 people were killed in the attacks. In total, around 1,000 Palestinians are said to have been killed since Hamas attacked Israel on Saturday. 5,000 should be injured. All figures are unconfirmed.

What is clear is that Israel’s counter-offensive will hit the roughly 2.4 million inhabitants of Gaza hard.

Clouds of smoke over Gaza City on Wednesday, after Israeli bombardments. Photo: Hatem Moussa, AP/NTB

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Stops all supplies

After Hamas attacked Israel and carried out massacres against young people at a festival and in several villages, the world did not have to wait long for Israel’s response. On Monday, the message came that all transport across the border will be stopped.

The population is completely dependent on fuel, food and medicine from outside. Access to electricity and water is also blocked.

On Wednesday, Palestinian civilians had to secure water, before supplies ran out. Photo: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa, Reuters/NTB

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On Wednesday afternoon, Hamas reported that the production of electricity had stopped.

Fact

This is Hamas

Hamas is the short form of Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah, Arabic for Islamic Resistance Movement.

It is an Islamist movement with a civilian and a military wing.

The organization was founded in 1987. Initially, Israel saw Hamas as an alternative to the PLO. But throughout the 1990s, the organization was behind an increasing number of terrorist attacks against Israel.

In 2006, it won the elections to the Palestinian Legislative Assembly.

While the organization Fatah rules the Palestinian territories in the West Bank, Hamas rules in Gaza.

The EU and the US have put Hamas on their lists of terrorist organisations.

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“Such open dehumanization and attempts to bomb a population into submission, to use starvation as a weapon and strategy in war, and to wipe out their national existence, is nothing short of genocide,” wrote the Palestinian envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, in a letter to the UN Security Council.

Aftenposten has received permission to publish the photos below from the American satellite company Maxar. Here you can clearly see the destruction of a residential area that was bombed by Israel on Tuesday in the western part of Gaza. The picture showing how the area looked before the attack is from 10 May this year.

No place to escape

Gaza’s surface area is smaller than Mjøsa. It is considered one of the world’s most densely populated areas. For the population, it is difficult to find places where they can find cover when the flight alert goes off.

– I was sleeping when the house collapsed on top of me, shouted a man to the Reuters news agency.

He was equipped with a flashlight as he searched for survivors in the house next door.

Israel’s ambassador in Oslo, Avi Nir-Feldklein, told Aftenposten on Monday that the country’s air forces usually “warn” civilians with a small explosion, so that they will get away before the bombs fall in earnest.

Reports from Gaza suggest that is not always the case.

Several mosques have been razed to the ground in Israeli retaliatory attacks.

One of the photos was taken by Maxar of the al-Gharbi mosque in western Gaza on Tuesday. The second photo is from 10 May.

The Israeli ambassador also said that Hamas often places its activity near schools, hospitals and mosques.

According to the Palestinian authorities, the last few days’ Israeli bomb raids have hit 48 schools and 10 medical centres. They also claim that 22,000 homes have been destroyed.

According to the UN people in Gaza, 180,000 people have lost their homes. Many seek refuge in schools, others live on the streets.

All figures are uncertain.

– It’s completely wild, absolutely nowhere is safe. I have been evacuated three times since yesterday, 22-year-old Plestia Alaqad told Reuters on Tuesday.

The al-Sousi mosque in Gaza was also destroyed in the Israeli attacks on Tuesday. The comparison picture is from 10 May.

Støre: Hamas is a terrorist organization

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre briefed the Storting on developments in the Middle East.

Both Israel and the opposition in Parliament have demanded that the government call Hamas a terrorist organisation. Hamas is already on the US and EU lists of terrorist organisations. Norway has no such list, and the government has long refused to label Hamas as terrorists.

On Monday, Støre said NRK:

– I think it is appropriate today to call this an organization that is responsible for having carried out terror.

From the Storting’s lectern on Wednesday, he described the attack against Israel as acts of terrorism and war crimes. After the statement, he confirmed to the press:

– Let me make it absolutely clear: An organization that has planned, carried out and taken responsibility for such terrorist acts must be able to be characterized as a terrorist organisation. Dot. Done talking.

By then, the parliamentary leader of government partner the Center Party had already told NTB:

– The Center Party as a party has no problem establishing that Hamas is a terrorist organisation. At the same time, there is reason to emphasize that Hamas is not the same as the Palestinian people or the Palestinian Authority.

Can destroy rear channel

Dag Henrik Tuastad is senior lecturer in Middle Eastern studies at the University of Oslo. He says it is currently unclear whether the government’s labeling of Hamas in that way will have practical consequences.

– If it means that you have to cut off all contact, that is unfortunate, he says.

He emphasizes that Hamas has a civilian part that governs society in Gaza, with schools and hospitals. And then there is the military part that is behind the massacres in Israel. After the US and the EU labeled Hamas as terrorists, they may have benefited from countries such as Norway and Switzerland still talking to the organization.

– There has been no pressure from the US to stop it. They also need someone to communicate through, says Tuastad.

2023-10-12 08:07:58
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